Authorities in Prague responsible for the city’s Unesco-recognised medieval old town are considering a ban on excessive fancy dress costumes for bachelor parties, which are being blamed as a significant factor in noise pollution and anti-social behaviour in the Czech capital.
Fourth most popular stag destination
The lively clubs and bars around the city’s Wenceslas Square are well known for attracting a particular brand of mostly British tourist, often clad in outrageous or themed costumes as they take part in “stag” or “hen” celebrations prior to a friend’s marriage. So popular are they, in fact, that StagWeb, a UK stag party provider, says Prague is in their top five preferred European destinations for 2024, with Benidorm, Albufeira and Dublin ahead in the ranking.
But the proposal means the thousands of visitors who go to Prague every year to mark the rite of passage may now need to rethink any plans to descend in costumes on the city.
Hunger strike
Local councillor Bronislava Sitár Baboráková, told Prague Morning the tourists’ outfits “exceed generally acceptable social conventions” and have a detrimental effect on residents of the city, especially the elderly and young children.
The problem is so bad that one city dweller has recently undertaken a 10-day hunger strike to protest the noise pollution in the old town, telling Novinky.cz that the hunger strike was “nothing” compared to the fact his “health is already ruined by chronic noise.” The hunger striker complains that the city has “not done anything at all regarding noise, vibrations and light smog to improve the situation of the remaining residents in the city center. Nothing at all, zero.”
Childish behaviour?
The city has however tried to introduce other measures to curb the problem in the past, with a ban on cars in the old town district at night, as well as tighter regulations for business hours, neither of which stuck.
Not everyone agrees that the latest attempt to tackle unruly visitors will do the trick. StagWeb’s creative director Jon Stainer, questioned the logic of such a ban in The Independent, saying the firm is “not entirely sure how that will stop noise pollution.” Stainer also said it was “a strange measure if it’s a blanket ban”, describing most costumed stag party participants as “very respectful and just having a bit of fun”.
Prague’s councillor for property, transparency and legislation, Adam Zábranský, also doubts the proposal is the right approach, dismissing the visitors’ antics as “childish behaviour”. “I understand the effort made to solve the problem of pub crawls, I also perceive them as very annoying for people living in the centre of Prague. But I don’t think we should solve it by banning the childish behaviour of bachelor party participants who dress up in costumes”, he was reported as saying by Expats CZ.
